Editorial: Big appetite for new Whangarei night market

Whangarei's first Gourmet Night Market at the Canopy Bridge was a success. Photo/John Stone

I don't know Jasmine Te Raki but I admire her.

On Friday night Jasmine queued for an hour to get a burger at the inaugural Gourmet Night Market in Whangarei. I hope the burger was worth it.

The other thing I admire about Jasmine is that she didn't complain about having to wait for an hour.

Instead, she took the stance that "Yes it's a long wait but next time I'm pretty sure it will be better organised as that was only the first! Lovely to see all of Whangarei out there supporting our locals plus some".

Jasmine was commenting on the Advocate's Facebook page, on our story reporting that the market attracted more than 3000 people.

There were long queues, vendors sold out and some people turned up and left straight away - the mass of people was too much to contemplate.

Whilst some were annoyed at the crowds and delays, what a great problem for Whangarei to have.

Organiser Leeann de Vries must be delighted to get those numbers, and the feedback on social media seems to be offering a mix of proactive solutions, and congratulations.

The Canopy Bridge seems to be a little small for this type of event - it would be great to see it spread from the bridge to the Basin's surrounds.

In time, there were will be a park adjacent to the Hundertwasser building, and perhaps people will even be encouraged to eat on the building's grass roof.

The entertainment could perform on a floating barge.

The other benefit of having events like this at the Town Basin is that people also go to other businesses in the CBD - the economic love is shared.

Don't move it - this is why Whangarei developed the Town Basin, for it to be a focal point.

And having proved we have the appetite for this sort of thing, roll on those changes that complete the Town Basin as a community hub.